Albert Laporte, White Plains High School

Sep. 2, 2011

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Albert Laporte with students Clair Cangialosi, left, and Madeline Smith. To tap into his geometry students' preference for interactive learning — and their nocturnal study habits — Laporte created a website that serves as a virtual classroom. "Students get bored with the paper and the pencil." / Seth Harrison/The Journal News

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Whether it's serving as a Marine in the First Gulf War or running ultra-marathons of 50-plus miles, Albert Laporte doesn't believe in doing anything halfway or low-key.

He takes the same approach to teaching geometry, embracing the latest online technology and making himself available to his students — and their parents — day or night.

"My computer is always on — I keep myself available basically 24 hours a day," says Laporte. "Some of these students do their homework very late into the night."

For his geometry students last year, he created his own website that serves as a discussion board and online learning community, complete with email and a chat feature that allows students, via computer or smart phone, to have a quick back and forth about homework problems or test scores with each other and Laporte.

There's an online journal for students on the website, for them to add entries after each class — "what they've learned, what they're having difficulty with, or what they'd like to learn," Laporte says. "I can then respond to the journals and add links or information they may have missed in class."

Another section of the site has online assessments with multiple-choice and free-response questions. Each student becomes an expert on one of the free-response queries — they post the question and then grade and comment on all of their fellow students' answers.

"We're removing the teacher from the equation," Laporte explains. "We just have him as the facilitator."

There's also a wiki feature that allows students to create a personalized online textbook, complete with diagrams and web-editing features, even audio and video.

How do the students feel about this online activity?

"They love it," Laporte says. "They're already plugged in — they're texting, they're on iPads. This gives them the opportunity to explore using their own technology."